[[abstract]]The Fable of the Bees argues that private vices like human wants, vanity and extravagant consumption bring forth public benefits like charity, division of labor, hard work, innovation, social progress and prosperity. The chapter of Chi-mi in Guan Zi advocates extravagant consumption by the rich and powerful to stimulate economic prosperity and employment especially in times of natural disaster and economic downturn. The Fable of the Bees and Chi-mi share many similarities in their economic reasoning. However, their fates, political backgrounds and objectives are quite different. The Fable of the Bees was written in England a few decades after the Glorious Revolution. It opposes putting religious and moral restraints on consumption. It acknowledges the following preconditions for turning private vices into public benefits: security of private property, political equality, the rule of law and freedom of thoughts. These preconditions were largely satisfied in post Glorious Revolution England. Thetriumph of parliamentary supremacy resolved major political conflicts between the landed aristocracy and the middle class. Furthermore, great power rivalry among European states prompted many intellectual enquiries into state powers and the nature of wealth. Consequently, The Fable of the Bees inspired classical economics. Chi-mi is a statecraft, its main concern is the centralization of power. It advocates extravagance as a means to strengthen the control of the sovereign over powerful lords, officials and aristocrats to reduce their wealth and power thus avoid their challenges to the political center. Despite the calls for consumption, Chi-mi places the status of agriculture over that of commerce and industry. Chi-mi was written during the formation period of the traditional centralized imperial state of China. China maintained such political ideology for the next two millennium where internal political control and stability were the main concern of the empire. Therefore, mind control regime (including the Confucian orthodoxy) was firmly established while commerce and industry were suppressed. Furthermore, the lack of a competitive external environment means that there was no motive to inquire into the state power and the nature of wealth. Consequently, Chi-mi became virtually obsolete.
展开▼
